Steady-state photocatalytic epoxidation of propene by O2 over V2O5SiO2 photocatalysts

A silica-supported, lowly loaded vanadium oxide (V2O5/SiO2) photocatalyst promotes the photocatalytic epoxidation of propene with O2 at steady state in a flow reactor system. Very little deep oxidation of propene into CO2 takes place over V2O5/SiO2, in contrast to the results obtained over a TiO2 photocatalyst in which total oxidation is the main path. With each loading, the sums of the selectivities into propene oxide (PO) and propanal (PA) at steady state were almost the same. The monomeric VO4 tetrahedral species dispersed on SiO2 yield PO under UV irradiation. The less dispersed vanadium oxide species on SiO2 promote the isomerization of PO into PA. We utilized a flow reactor system in which the short contact time reduced the isomerization and resultant decomposition of PO over the catalyst surface.